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cutting hole into old attic in order to do electrical work

cutting hole into old attic in order to do electrical work


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Old 10-08-17, 11:12 AM
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cutting hole into old attic in order to do electrical work

I want to add another light switch to the laundry room, so that we don't have to walk to the other side of the laundry room in the dark to turn on the light.

Our laundry room was part of the house prior to the addition of the garage. The garage roof was tied into house in such a way that the laundry room now has a "vestigial" roof, so to speak. In other words, if you go out into the attached garage, you can look up and see the siding and roof above the utility room, because that used to be the outside of the house. (See photo taken from inside garage looking at utility room wall.)

I would like to be able to cut into this old roof in order to get inside this attic and do electrical work. The guy who installed our electric water heater has already cut a roughly 6x6 inch hole in order to run a wire. I'd like to either expand that or cut into the gable wall (see attached photo). I would prefer the gable wall to cut into.

If I cut into the gable wall, do I need to make sure not to cut into the studs? Those studs aren't bearing any of the weight of the current roof, are they? What do you recommend?

Thank you all.
 
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Last edited by areaman; 10-08-17 at 11:15 AM. Reason: describe photo
  #2  
Old 10-08-17, 11:31 AM
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Cut between the studs first to get a better view, Hopefully, you can squeeze through between the studs to the attic.
 
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Old 10-08-17, 11:44 AM
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Okay, thank you. I'll just have to locate the studs then. I assume my magnetic stud finder won't work through siding. I assume there's not one right down the middle at the peak of the roof because that's where normally a gable vent would go.
 
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Old 10-08-17, 12:03 PM
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You said you had a garage added on. I see a massive roof over the whole area dwarfing the garage.

I take the red line as the old roof line. That makes that old roof non load bearing. Do you want to cut where the blue box is ?

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Old 10-08-17, 12:08 PM
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Theoretically the studs under a gable are not load bearing EXCEPT for the one directly under the peak. There should be a header at the line of the eaves and the the studs above the header to either side of the center should be safe to cut, at least one. Cutting more than one should not be necessary for access but if you do I personally would advise framing it as a doorway.

There may also be building or fire code issues with leaving an opening between the garage and the attic above living spaces.
 
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Old 10-08-17, 12:10 PM
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Yes, that's about where I'd like to cut to get in. Thank you for your reply.

Yes, that roof covers the garage, the utility room you see in the photo, and then an area directly behind the utility room that used to be part of the garage, but was finished and turned into a "mud room." So the area above the utility room has it's own roof and attic as you see in the photo, and the mud room behind it has an unfinished attic with no wall between it and the garage. I hope that all makes sense.
 
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Old 10-08-17, 12:13 PM
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Yes, all of the lines you have drawn are correct. That's the old roof. So the utility room technically has two roofs protecting it. Which came in handy when we had a leak around the chimney.
 
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Old 10-08-17, 12:45 PM
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So....I think we answered your question about cutting. Move where I drew the blue box slightly to the left. As Furd mentioned.... the access hole should be recovered when finished,
 
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Old 10-08-17, 01:55 PM
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Thanks very much to all of you.
 
 

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